Star Italia Ricci, who plays April Carver on the show, spoke with reporters about the series, portraying a cancer patient and more. Check it:

On going out for the role of April: “The show itself is just so incredible and it’s real. It could be happening to anybody. It is happening to anybody. It has happened and it will be happening and it’s such a real story and it’s written so well and it’s so inspiring. It has so much of everything in it that I’ve wanted to be a part of telling it. I feel so lucky —I was just an actor sent in on a mission to go in. I wasn’t sifting through scripts being like ‘I only want this one.’ This is when I got the audition I was auditioning for everything during the pilot season and this one was like a golden ticket. This is the role that you’re just like ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be one that everybody is trying to get.’ I got so lucky.”

On portraying a cancer patient and touching on the subject: The show isn’t all about cancer. From the people that I’ve spoken to everybody goes through it differently, so there’s no one way to try and show the world what somebody would be experiencing. So I did my best to play April as authentically as we can within the confines of entertainment television. I’m sure there will be some people who completely disagree with how she’s reacting to certain things physically and emotionally and then there’s some people who might say that’s exactly what they experienced, or what they saw somebody experience. I hope people can at least understand. They’re going to know it’s still television. It’s not a documentary, but at the same time being on set doing some of those scenes, it does get scary when you have to remind yourself that you’re not sick.

On the subject matter: As an audience member, I enjoy watching things that make me feel represented and I feel like people are interested in seeing this because no matter what role you play, there might be somebody you can relate to, whether it’s the mom of somebody who’s sick or the best friend or the boss. There’s something that you’re like “okay, I can relate to that and I feel that validation,” it piques a lot of people’s interest if they can find something that they relate to. And then there are people who just want to feel like they’re not alone in this and they’re not. There are so many people that feel everything that every character is feeling in the show. I’ve seen The Fault in Our Stars, and it’s pretty similar to our show. The types of cancers are different and some of the plot points, but it’s a wonderful movie and I hope people watch it. But 50/50, when Joseph Gordon Levitt and I had reshoots for the movie we did, he actually is the one that pulled me aside and was like ‘I think it’s amazing what you’re doing, but don’t forget that you’re not sick.’ I never really took it to heart before I started shooting and now I’m so grateful that he had said that to me, because like I said, that’s sometimes the hardest part.”